Welcome to our special focus on our mental health concepts and in particular for this feature, the concept of Self care.

Watch our special animation all about self care and why it is so important for everyone and why at stormbreak we believe it is essential to keep our minds and bodies healthy and well.

WATCH OUR SELF CARE ANIMATION

So why is self care important and what is self care all about?

Self-care is: How we look after our mental and physical health, notice our feelings and how we make choices about ways to take care of ourselves. It is being able to:

• take care of ourselves and learning how to respond to our feelings by calming ourselves down or energising ourselves.
• recognise what our emotional triggers are and having strategies to manage difficult or uncomfortable feelings.
• make responsible and informed choices for ourselves and our ultimate wellbeing.
• recognise, name and safely express a range of feelings.
• be resourceful and able to think of solutions when challenges arise.
• maintain a level of control in our lives so that we feel emotionally and physically well.

This is supportive to our wellbeing in how we regulate stress, anxieties and uncomfortable feelings but also how we choose activities that are good for us and our long term mental health.

Our Stormbreak mental health lead, Clare Williams talks about self care, helping us to understand this concept more fully, as well as know the benefits that come with being able to take care of ourselves and put ourselves first some of the time.

WATCH CLARE WILLIAMS TALKING ABOUT SELF CARE

Try this stormbreak: Make friends with a creature as Darryl focuses on our self care and helps us to take care of ourselves:

Make friends with a creature · Darryl · self-care

Helping our children with self-care

In understanding the importance and some of the benefits to us of self-care, it is necessary for us to think about how we can support children to develop an understanding of self-care but also that we equip them with the skills to not only notice and be able to express how they are feeling, but also the strategies to help them to regulate feelings and emotions and also to take practical steps to optimise their emotional wellbeing and physical health.

• We can help our children by valuing our own self-care and showing children how to manage their emotions safely.
• We can demonstrate choosing activities that help us to regulate our emotions, that calm us down, allow us to express feelings, or energise us or change our mood or thought processes.
• We can encourage children to choose activities that may help; mindfulness activities, creative activities or movements, being out in nature, active movements that re-balance the natural chemical systems and hormone release in our bodies and minds.
• We can choose language that conveys value, that encourages children to notice and recognise feelings and gives permission to put ourselves first sometimes.

All this enables children to consider their wellbeing, to prioritise it and to value themselves emotionally and physically.

Join Clare, our Stormbreak mental health lead, in thinking about how we can help our children to take care of themselves and know how vital it is that children have trusted adults who encourage, listen and support children to value their own self care as a life-long skill.

WATCH HELPING CHILDREN WITH SELF-CARE

Try another stormbreak, this time Monkey mind with Kate.

Monkey mind · Kate · self-care

This stormbreak helps us to let go of difficult feelings. Self-care is making choices to look after ourselves in different ways, to care for our mental and physical health. We can have lots of feelings and these can be difficult or uncomfortable, or happy and energised, and it is important that we notice these and then choose ways to take care of ourselves.

Have a look at other stormbreak that focus on self care and see if you can notice which ones help you to notice your feelings and help you take care of yourself.

We hope you find this helpful in valuing your own self care and that of the children you live or work with. Looking after ourselves is as important for adults as it is for our children and we hope you enjoy each of the self care stormbreaks which give you the opportunity to focus on this as a core mental health concept for our wellbeing.